Keyboards are essential input devices for many applications, including for computers used by individuals. Such individual or "personal" computers are often designed to be transportable and have been occupying less cubic volume over time. A limitation on the reduction in the size of portable personal computers has been the desire of users for a keyboard at least approximating the conventional keyboards known and used with desktop personal computers. Such conventional keyboards typically have an elongated rectangular form with alphanumeric keys arrayed in rows and staggered columns in the standard "QWERTY" layout of typewriters. Usually, such keyboards also have a number of special function keys arrayed around the standard keys.
As efforts have been made toward reducing the size of portable personal computers, some designers have chosen to reduce the size of the keys and thus the keyboards, while others have chosen various ways to fold the keyboards into a more compact arrangement for transportation. Such folded keyboards are best folded along an axis perpendicular to the length of the elongated rectangular form. A problem is that the electrical lines connected to the keys of one of the sections are separated from those connected to the keys on the other section in order to facilitate separating the sections so that they can be folded. Further, only one of the sections is directly connectable to the data processor and to the display. Lastly, the keys comprise staggered rows and offset columns and thus, when folded, leave an irregular edge along the fold, making it very difficult to interconnect the two sections. An example of such a folding keyboard is the Chiu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,453.
What is needed is a folding keyboard with a means for maintaining the electrical interconnections between the multiple sections, and without rearranging the keys from a standard layout.